Emotion Regulation Strategies Across Psychopathology: Meta-Analysis
This paper reviews Aldao, Nolen-Hoeksema, and Schweizer's (2010) meta-analysis examining how six emotion regulation (ER) strategies — rumination, avoidance, suppression, problem solving, reappraisal, and acceptance — relate to specific psychopathologies including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and eating disorders. Drawing on 114 studies using self-report measures published between 1985 and 2008, the analysis found that maladaptive strategies such as rumination, avoidance, and suppression showed large to medium effect sizes positively associated with pathology, while adaptive strategies showed smaller inverse relationships. The paper also evaluates moderating variables such as sample type and age, discusses methodological limitations, and considers implications for clinical treatment.
- Introduction to Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology: Defines ER and its role in psychopathology models
- Meta-Analysis Methodology and Inclusion Criteria: Describes study selection process and 114-study sample
- Findings: Effect Sizes for Maladaptive and Adaptive Strategies: Reports effect sizes across six ER strategies
- Moderator Variables: Sample Type and Age: Examines age and clinical sample as moderators
- Implications for Treatment and Study Limitations: Discusses clinical implications and methodological limits
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What makes this paper effective
- Accurately summarizes a complex meta-analytic study, including methodology, findings, moderator variables, and limitations in a concise, organized manner.
- Distinguishes clearly between adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and their differential relationships to specific psychopathologies.
- Engages critically with surprising findings — such as reappraisal's small effect sizes despite its prominence in cognitive therapies — rather than simply reporting results.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective research summarization with critical commentary. Rather than merely paraphrasing the source, it contextualizes findings within broader clinical relevance, notes limitations such as self-report unreliability and construct overlap, and raises thoughtful questions about why certain results (e.g., reappraisal's weak effects) diverge from clinical expectations.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by defining emotion regulation and situating it within models of psychopathology and treatment. It then describes the meta-analytic methodology, including inclusion criteria and the final sample of 114 studies. The results section covers overall effect sizes for all six ER strategies and then addresses two moderator variables — sample type and age — at both the overall and disorder-specific levels. The paper closes with a discussion of theoretical implications, clinical relevance, and methodological limitations.
Introduction to Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology
Aldao, Nolen-Hoeksema, and Schweizer (2010) define emotional regulation as the process — unconscious or conscious — through which individuals modulate their emotions. Models of psychopathology and treatment have incorporated emotion regulation (ER) into their paradigms. Treatment interventions concentrate on aspects of mindfulness in emotional regulation (e.g., reappraisal, acceptance, and problem solving), whereas models of psychopathology are more apt to focus on automatic processes such as the paradoxical effects of trying to suppress unwanted thoughts, as well as rumination and avoidance. Aldao et al. were interested in the relationship of these six strategies to the specific psychopathologies of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and eating disorders, in terms of each strategy's sensitivity and specificity.
Meta-Analysis Methodology and Inclusion Criteria
A meta-analysis of studies using self-report measures of ER dispositional tendencies was performed, drawing on research published between 1985 and 2008. Inclusion criteria required that studies contain at least one cross-sectional relationship between an ER strategy and a psychopathology; that ER was assessed via self-report questionnaires; that the study was published in a peer-reviewed journal; that participants were English-speaking; that participants had no other medical conditions and were selected solely on the basis of their clinical diagnosis; that the sample did not consist of recovered persons; that a control group was included; that the study did not exclusively provide data on GAD or PTSD; and that longitudinal portions of studies were excluded. After applying these criteria, the researchers retained 114 studies for their analysis.
Findings: Effect Sizes for Maladaptive and Adaptive Strategies
Findings indicated that rumination, avoidance, and suppression had large to medium effect sizes overall and demonstrated a positive relationship to psychopathology. Problem solving generally produced medium effect sizes, while reappraisal and acceptance had small to medium effect sizes; the relationships for all three of these adaptive strategies were inversely related to the specific pathology.
Rumination had the largest effect size among the three maladaptive ER strategies across each of the specific pathologies, whereas problem solving had the largest effect size among the adaptive ER strategies when examined by pathology. Notably, reappraisal generally produced small effect sizes.
Two potential moderator variables were also examined. Using sample type as a moderator indicated that clinical samples had larger effect sizes for maladaptive ER strategies — especially rumination and suppression — compared to non-clinical samples. Sample type was a marginally significant moderator of avoidance and problem solving in clinical samples. Age (adults compared to adolescents and children), the other moderator variable examined, did not account for a significant amount of variability in overall maladaptive ER strategy use.
References
Aldao, A., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Schweizer, S. (2010). Emotion regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 217–237.
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